On Mar 31, 2012, at 3:05 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > Hi Mark, > > > On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 7:03 PM, mark seiden <[email protected]> wrote: >> i'm often in new york, but not next week. >> >> but i know it well, so if anyone needs recommendations, i can supply. the >> more specific the requirements, >> the easier to satisfy them... > > Too bad about next week, maybe another time when I'm in the city or in > the area we could meet. > > So, what do you recommend for a visitor who's been there a dozen odd > times and is falling into the trap of doing the same comfortable > things every time? > > I love walking the streets of Manhattan (maybe I will pack a lunch and > don a backpack, pack the camera and hike around the city), maybe > window shopping(speaking of shopping I'm definitely staying out of B&H > Photo Video, but maybe some pizza when in Brooklyn), sampling the > chinese and Indian restaurants (again getting into something of a > pattern of favorites here, Chinese Mirch usually satisfies both and > neither, but I have a few hole in the wall cabbie haunts where I grab > a cheap lunch out of a styrofoam box for old memories), grabbing a > coffee at my favorite coffee shop (cafegrumpy.com for the curious), > running in Central Park (I will be staying too far away this time, so > maybe I'll substitute running in the Hamptons or cycling), browsing > books at the Strand at the risk of adding to the quite tall to-read > pile, maybe a few art movies (I'll be too early for the Tribeca film > festival, but I'll have to see what I can do) and since I'm on > something of a vacation this time maybe I will have time for the > Guggenheim and the Met or the Asia society. >
where are you staying? manhattan is not everything. particularly in food, where it is enormously expensive to start a new restaurant. many of the good startups are on the lower east side. most of them are in queens. i particularly recommend walking from roosevelt avenue (under the elevated line) where the food is entirely indus to 82th street, by which time the food is entirely latino, and then through jackson height/elmhurst to the elmhurst ave stop on the R, which has several of the better thai, indonesian, etc. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/716252 also worth spending a day in flushing, just eating -- chinese, korean. chowhound is a great resource for the "outer boroughs". brooklyn has turned into the left bank. "best bagels" used to be h&h next to zabars, now closed. "It's not about dozens. It's about dollars," Consolo said. "No bread can pay for $300 a square foot." but there are two other h&h-es, one a rogue op on the east side, and one on the west side highway. http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/nyc-dining-hh-midtown-bagels-east/ (zabar's still has the best rye bread, also excellent whitefish salad, herring, and strudel - apricot cheese is my favorite) one restaurant i particularly like, in manhattan: prune (on 1st street near 1st ave) i found gabrielle gifford's memoir quite charming. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/gabrielle_hamilton/index.html walk through the essex street market. might want to do a web search for "shopsin's", which is still in there, in a much reduced form. i've heard that the tenement museum is worth a visit. the union sq farmer's market is fun, while you're at strand. might want to check out "eatally". usually mobbed except for the vegetarian restaurant. discounts on jazz at birdland and many other events: first sign up via my affiliate link: >> https://www.goldstar.com/join?p=F762304RP goldstar also has discounts on many tours and theatre events. i went on the 3 pizza bus tour of brooklyn and greatly enjoyed it. "venus in furs" is on broadway. don't miss it. i've heard that the musical version of silence of the lambs in the east village is very amusing. > Oh and one more question, what's your recommendation for the best > bagels in town? > > Thanks, > Cheeni >
